They give little detail but show that he has sued the BBC and South Yorkshire Police.

Sir Cliff is listed as a claimant and the BBC and Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police as defendants.

The papers were filed on Thursday.

Sir Cliff was the subject of a long-running South Yorkshire Police investigation which centred on accusations dating between 1958 and 1983 made by four men.

Officers investigating allegations of historical sex offences were filmed searching his apartment in Berkshire in 2014 by the BBC, leading to him being publicly named as the subject of the probe.

He was never arrested or charged and his case was discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service in June on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

After the investigation was brought to a close in June, Sir Cliff said he was ”thrilled”.

He added: ”I have always maintained my innocence, co-operated fully with the investigation, and cannot understand why it has taken so long to get to this point.

”Nevertheless, I am obviously thrilled that the vile accusations and the resulting investigation have finally been brought to a close.”

A spokesman for Sir Cliff said: “We can confirm that Sir Cliff today issued legal proceedings at the High Court against both SYP and the BBC. It would not be appropriate to comment further.”

A BBC spokesman said: “While we haven’t received any notification of action, we’ve said previously we are very sorry that Sir Cliff has suffered distress but we have a duty to report on matters of public interest and we stand by our journalism.”

BBC coverage of the raid on Cliff Richard’s home was nominated for an RTS scoop of the year award in 2015.

The channel was tipped off by police about the raid on the singer’s home after approaching South Yorkshire Police with questions about the fact he was under investigation.